ARTICLES ABOUT AVASTIN BY DATE - PAGE 2

FRANKFURT, June 1 (Reuters) - Merck KGaA's cancer drug Erbitux was shown to be more effective at prolonging the lives of bowel cancer patients than Roche's Avastin, Merck said. In a drug trial, the two drugs were each given in combination with Folfiri chemotherapy to patients whose colorectal cancer had started spreading to other organs. The results showed the Erbitux group survived on average nearly four months longer than the Avastin group. The trial was conducted by an independent research collaborative of the German Association of Medical Oncology (AIO)

CHICAGO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer over a year ago, Gabe Tartaglia was loath to undergo the kind of harsh chemotherapy that had devastated his sister before her death three years earlier from pancreatic cancer. He decided to enter a clinical trial for a new drug designed to trigger the immune system to fight cancer. The results were better than anyone expected. "Everything has shrunk," said the 62-year-old contractor from Wolcott, Connecticut, who still goes for treatment every two weeks and has regular scans to keep tabs on his progress.

(Reuters) - Allergan Inc said approval of its Darpin eye drug could be delayed up to two years, providing a new boost to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc whose successful treatment, Eylea, stands to gain from a lack of new competition. Shares of Allergan, which makes wrinkle treatment Botox, fell 13.1 percent after the company said mid-stage trial results of Darpin did not warrant an immediate move into far larger late-stage trials. Regeneron shares closed up 10.3 percent. If eventually approved, Darpin would also compete with Roche Holding AG's, Lucentis, to treat age-related macular degeneration - the most common form of blindness in the elderly.

LONDON (Reuters) - A spike in U.S. demand for flu drug Tamiflu and strong sales of mainstay cancer medicines lifted first-quarter sales at Roche Holding AG by a bigger-than-expected 5 percent. The healthy performance in its main pharmaceuticals unit - which was also bolstered by approval of two new breast cancer drugs - offset weak sales in diagnostics, and the Swiss group confirmed its forecast of rising sales and profit for 2013. The world's largest maker of cancer drugs said quarterly sales rose to 11.59 billion Swiss francs ($12.44 billion)

Jan 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the use of Roche's Avastin for patients whose colorectal cancer has worsened despite previous treatment with the drug. The new use will allow patients first treated with Avastin plus chemotherapy to be treated again with the biotechnology drug in combination with a different chemotherapy regimen. A pivotal clinical trial showed that such a treatment strategy improved survival. "The majority of people diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer receive Avastin plus chemotherapy as their initial treatment," Hal Barron, chief medical officer at Roche's Genentech unit, said in a statement.

LONDON (Reuters) - A group of experts calling for a global treaty to stop the lethal trade in fake medicines has been barred from attending a World Health Organisation meeting, highlighting deep divisions that are blocking progress on the subject. Leading academics and health professionals hoped to provoke debate on the need for a new international law to prevent falsified and substandard drugs reaching the market with a paper published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday.

* Sees full-year U.S. Eylea sales at $790 mln to $815 mln * Eylea sales rise 26 percent in third quarter * Shares up 5 pct before the bell (Adds details, background, share movement) Oct 24 (Reuters) - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc reported third-quarter earnings that blew past Wall Street expectations on strong growth in its eye drug Eylea, whose sales projections the company raised for the fourth time this year. The biotechnology company now expects full-year Eylea sales of between $790 million and $815 million in the United States, above the $700 million to $750 million it forecast in late-July, and nearly five times the initial forecast it made in January.